Mark Cuban

Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank’s chief “shark,” Mark Cuban is famous for his savvy investment choices and plain-spoken wisdom. Forbes magazine estimates his net worth as $3.3 billion.

Cuban foresaw the burst of the dot-com bubble. He sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo for close to $6 billion in 1999, diversifying with the purchase of the Mavericks in 2000. Then the worst-performing in the NBA, the team became surprise 2011 champions.

In his 2013 book How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It, Cuban offers readers advice drawn from his own hard-won success. His maxims include: slow growth is not a disaster; eliminate debt; solve immediate problems even if it means putting long-term dreams on hold; and hire well-motivated employees.

Cuban invests heavily in tech, focusing on Netflix and Amazon, due to their potential for increased AI-driven innovations and even greater growth. Also an angel investor, he is known for providing extensive support to the companies with which he works.